Meta: They did what?!

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

To start with, thanks to everyone who's participated in our game and discussion so far this week! It's been lovely talking with you. I'll post a fic round-up from Truth or Dare before the week is over :)

On to today's topic!

One of the great struggles that people have had with the way this show ended (and I'm not trying to stir up THAT whole mess today) is with the table scene. Especially for people watching in real time, there were many theories in place already about what Kara and Lee's back story was.



But today, let’s just say that what happened in Daybreak was always the back story for Lee and Kara, and the writers had decided that before the show started and not, you know, five minutes before it ended. When should it have come up? What moments would have been different for Kara and Lee if they had a past and a connection they both acknowledged? Leave moments below for people to respond to with meta or fic, or just leave us your rambly thoughts on the topic!

Comments

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Mini-series

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

After Kara sleeps with Gaius

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Unfinished Business

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

For example, I think that if it had been established fact between them that they'd slept together, there would have been a lot more discussion (or subtext, even) about how being cheating cheaters reminded them of that whole mess with Zak. All of their guilt might even have been a legitimate factor in keeping them apart while they were seeing other people, or might have given Lee reason to doubt that Kara could be faithful to him. At any rate, there could have been more to explore!

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I think knowing this happened the first night they met makes Lee "I never really realized how I felt" stance a bit harder to swallow. Both in this episode and in KLG 1 and Home, where he's surprised by his jealousy and his happiness to see her again respectively. I guess he could've convinced himself it was just the alcohol and he'd never do anything like that and couldn't possibly have real feelings but...the insta-connection at the door and the way they bond--it's hard to buy into the idea that he didn't know or realize he had sexual/romantic feelings for her.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I guess he could've convinced himself it was just the alcohol and he'd never do anything like that and couldn't possibly have real feelings

This is how I've always rationalized the table scene from Lee's point of view in general actually. That the idea 'love at first sight' and reality that it would happen to him was more than Lee could process so he simply didn't. Lee made that moment, that evening with Kara something like a dream instead of how he really felt or how he was really going to allow himself to feel.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Makes sense! One of the things I've always struggled with regarding Lee--probably the thing that MOST makes me unable to relate to him and sometimes even like him--is his complete lack of self-awareness of his own desires.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Long before I saw Daybreak and the 'real' story, I had this theory that Lee was used to relationships/love growing over time while Kara expected instant attraction. And that when Lee and Kara first met, Lee felt that 'love at first sight' thing for the first time. He didn't know what to do with it so he pretended that it wasn't there. While Kara's real feelings for Lee grew in the time they were apart, leading to her hiding Lee's half of the picture in her locker, but by the time Lee shows up on Galactica for the decommissioning, Kara's so used to the idea that she shouldn’t be in love with Lee that she continues to shove it away until he comes back from the dead.

Very little about the meeting scene in Daybreak upset that theory except for the idea that Kara and Lee were doomed from the beginning instead of on the road to resolution and reconciliation. And that made all the difference.

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Act of Contrition / You Can't Go Home Again

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

This is probably where I would introduced the backstory between Kara and Lee. In part because the connection between Kara's feelings for Lee and the fact that she passed Zak play so nicely into her sense of guilt. It also would have set up from the outset (or at least much earlier) the depth of the confusion between Kara and Lee, even if it didn't change anything between them. Although I like to think it would have. ;)

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, there was some early draft of these episodes where they opened with the aftermath of Lee and Kara getting together for the first time. I'm not sure I'd have wanted it that early, without a little UST first - I wasn't hooked on them til later - but it would really have changed how things played out long-term.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Everything I've read about that other possible version makes me so glad they never did that. I think it would've ruined pilots completely. Too soon, too casual, no UST.... yeah, some bad idea jeans there.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have gotten Lee and Kara together at this point, but I don't think that introducing a more complete backstory means the end of UST or ruins the relationship or the potential for one.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Scar

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Oh, totally. When she's telling him there's nothing between them, he totally would have/should have shot back about how there's always been something there, they nearly cheated on Zak because of it, and she can run scared but it won't go away. (Sigh. I want to see that scene! :)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Scar is the point at which acknowledging Zak probably would have changed their relationship the most. Because I think it might have forced Lee's realization that he'd always had feelings for Kara.

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

Yes, if the internal struggle between them in Scar had been centered around their combined guilt over their table transgression against Zak instead of her hung-up-ed-ness on Sam (which would have made WAY more sense), we could have really aired out some vital issues much earlier while still leaving the primary conflict in place for later work. And that would have taken them from doomed to possible maybe. :(

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

(Sigh. I want to see that scene! :)

*sigh* All this pretty meta is giving me plot bunnies to spare.

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

That's never a bad thing! :)

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Maelstrom

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Daybreak

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

What's awful is that the theme here, with that reveal, becomes that they've *always* been waiting for this to work out, from the very moment they met. And in the same instant that that suddenly becomes their main theme, we're told that IT WILL NEVER WORK OUT. THE END.

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

Heartbreak! You just broked my heart. :(

I hate the message it sends in Daybreak. Make it go away! *cries*

[bristow1941.livejournal.com]

I remember watching it as it aired and going "yes, yes, yes" in exultation as they finally showed how long they have been working towards coming together at the right time and then the stupid poof! I literally started screaming at the TV. Thank god for much wonderful post-poof fanfiction!

And that stupid pigeon..... GRRRRR!

[winegums.livejournal.com]

t they've *always* been waiting for this to work out, from the very moment they met.

And this is why I love it so much. (I am SO LATE to saying this, but I have to because it makes me SWOON)